Chilean tunnel vision

While driving to work last night I noticed some giant pirate-ship like masts of one huge sailing boat towering over Queens Wharf. Thinking this was a strange sight in the 21st century I went to investigate, and found a large Spanish navy ship which seemed a little bit confused over whether it was a modern warship, or an 18th century explorer. It was metal hulled and clearly had engines to power itself, and yet it boasted magnificent sails bundled up at the base of the masts. Intermittent commands were issued over loud speaker in a language that I couldn't understand (Spanish), but which sounded cool.
The ship's name is the Esmeralda. And even as I research the ship to write this paragraph, I have discovered it is not a Spanish ship at all. It belongs to the Chilean navy. It is the second tallest and longest sailing ship in the world and carries a crew of 390. When sailing, it is powered by 39 sails on four masts. I should try and get on board to look around, afterall I did used to deliver pizzas to Carlos, the Chilean ambassador to Wellington.


The other day I went biking in Tunnel Gully, north of Upper Hutt. It is a stunning area of native bush and parkland, made more interesting by the leftover infrastructure of the old Hutt Valley to Wairarapa rail line, a winding and narrow incline used before the 8.9km Rimutaka tunnel was completed in 1955.
Pictured is the Mangaroa tunnel, built in 1878. It's 200m long, and it gets pretty spooky in the middle when you can't see the walls of the tunnel (let alone the bike you are riding on) and can only focus on the pinprick of light at the end and keep riding towards it, hoping you don't collide with the walls or any monsters/trolls that happen to be lurkng.

The third day, the sabbath

It is poignant to remind readers of the reason for the season. We have just reached the end of Easter Sunday. Jesus Christ has failed to return to earth. I spent the last half of the day at work. Beleive me, if Christ had come back we'd have heard about it by now.

It got me thinking about the whole thing, as I have been enjoynig copious amounts of Easter eggs since Good Friday like you wouldn't believe, man. What is the third day? While according to Wikipedia, that ever evolving machine of common knowledge, the third day, or Sabbath, is every Sunday, commemorating the return of Jesus. By that definition it is commemorated by some people every week of the year, but by chocolate-lovers only once - Easter Sunday. Then this led to the enquiring what the Sabbath meant to other, even stranger members of our society. Did you know that seventh day adventist belivers observe the sabbath from sunset friday until nightfall saturday. That means that the they have to spend the coolest, most happening period of the week at home praying to someone who might not even exist. I used to know one, actually, and his life was a continuous struggle between his social life and his deeply ingranied religious beliefs. That wording "sunset" friday and "nightfall" saturday is the main problem. I mean it is clear when sunset is. "Nightfall" is somewhat less clear. Some would consider it sunset, others as late as midnight saturday. This confusion is a smokescreen of confusion designed to cheat beleivers out of the best, most fun part of the week.

I'm not really sure where i'm going with this. I assure you this is the last time I will try to make a religious statement.

Until next time...

Here I am cruising down the new inner-city bypass while chasing a cool little mini. This part of the bypass has actually been open for a while, but the southbonud route only just opened last week. At their own insistance, the new road bypasses the asses of several hundred anti-roading protestors who have plagued this city for years. However, as hated as they are, it turns out they were right all along - The bypass sucks! The part pictured is pretty much the only below-grade bit of the new road. The rest of the bypass is interupted by no fewer than five sets of traffic lights. Not much of a bypass at all really. Folk round here reckon it has done more harm than good to traffic congestion, unless they are reading the Dominion Post, who think its the best thing in Wellington since the council itself.

Since my last post I have moved to the great suburb of Newlands. An 8 minute drive to the city and half the rent i was paying, i can't complain. And despite saving all that money on rent I get to live in perhaps the most white trash suburb of Wellington (not including Upper Hutt). The suburb is anchored by the Innkeeper of Newlands, a neighborhood pub which allows its esteemed patrons to get shit-drunk and then continues to serve them booze, which sure makes it an interesting place to be. And with Newlands at the top of the property crime stats, and being nearly continuously buffetted by a northerly wind that would be considered hurricane-strength anywhere else in the world, i cant think of a better place to be. Seriously though it is actually a nice place!

I have been going out a fair bit, trying out some new bars and resturants, checking out standup comedy nights on thursdays (you're garanteed a good night as long as you don't sit in the front row!), and the other night i even went bowling at The Lanes which is a new tenpin place combined with bar downtown. Good fun. Have kept up my flying but have decided to put it on hold for a month or so cause its getting pretty expensive. And my last lesson was a complete waste of time due to crowded airspace meaning we had to go into a holding pattern for the whole lesson. Well it was almost a complete waste of time, except for the sightseeing. I was holding just south of the basin reserve with views all over the city below me. Was pretty easy to forget about flying the plane and decend a few hundred feet by accident!

Also I got into going to the gym... rarely.. but any excersise is good. And I'm thinking of getting a motorbike again.